How We Become Who We Are
by Jokergal99
Summary: A story of how a normal everyday man turned into the super-villain we all know as The Joker. Contains mild language, violence. Rating may go up as the story progresses. First fic please be kind. Please R&R. I do not own DC or anything associated with it.
1. I promise

**Hey what do you know I've uploaded a story! My first none the less. I will carry on with it if I'm getting enough support (Review & follows) I don't want to upload loads of chapters and then find out no one likes it! There will probably be some Joker action in the 3rd chap and the start of him probably in the 2nd one ,trying to not bore you lot! Eheh. So yeah if you like it, review it! (I will try and make the next chap longer - if anyone likes it that is)  
**

He pushed open the tatty door which led to the equally tatty and run down flats and then all the reasons for him being depressed hit him again. He let out an involuntary sigh as he saw what looked like corpses draped over the stairs which he had to go up in order to get to his flat on the 23rd flour. He had the sudden urge to turn around, run, get what ever money he had, find the cheapest flight and just never come back. But of course he couldn't, he had responsibilities and duties, he was a husband. He was going to be a dad. So he began negotiating his way through the passed out drunks, mumbling "Sorry" now and again – not that they could understand him they were that out of it.

After nearly falling about twenty times due to people sticking their foot out at the last minute, he finally reached the 23rd floor then his front door. Before putting the key in the lock he stopped preparing himself for the verbal abuse he was more than likely going to get. "Just tell her that… that… oh hell, just tell her you got fired, you have to." Jack mumbled to himself. He put the key in the lock, turned it and walked in. He shut the door behind him and locked it up. "Jack, oh you're alive? You selfish idiot!" His wife waddled in; resembling a penguin due to the fact she only had another month before she was due to give birth.

"Hey honey." He mumbled sarcastically under his breath.

"You're late by, oh how much now?" She mockingly checked a non-existing watch on her wrist. "Oh don't worry actually only by about TWO HOURS! I thought you were dead, you know what? Stuff you, _we_ could have been robbed! Been murdered! Been beaten! Been..." She carried on going through every other imaginable thing, waving her arms about in the process. She finally finished breathlessly.

"Don't you think you're over reacting a tiny bit Sonya?" Jack mumbled.

"Oh sod off Jack; you're not the one who has to sit here jumping at every little noise thinking some kind off serial killers about to burst in!" She retorted "Anyway, where were you then? Hmm?" Great Jack though now he had to tell her.

"I got fired."

She dropped her jaw instantly. "Come again?" She quickly almost whispered which wasn't a good sign.

"You heard me, the reason I was late was because I got fire and I was trying to look for another-" He was cut off

"Oh my – this baby is going to be born on the street. How? Why? WHY?!" Tears were collecting up in her crystal blue eyes by now.

"It wasn't just me, in my defense they were making loads of us redundant." He protested.

"We might as well just throw ourselves out of the window, knowing are luck we'll just end up braking are legs." She mumbled. She sat down with some difficulty in the arm chair, pushing her long, luxurious golden hair back out of her face. Jack joined her sitting in the opposite chair. He rubbed his face roughly with both hands, his stubble against his hands the only noise in the room. "What are we going to do?" She whispered weakly trying to hold back threatening tears.

"There is one option" he whispered equally weakly. Subconsciously cracking his fingers.

"No. We are not borrowing money off of… them." She said strongly.

"But listen Son, I'll have a job by then, I can pay them back, I will. You know I will." He reasoned.

"But if you don't we might as well shoot are self, it would be more humane for us." She grumbled.

"I promise, I swear I will have the money to pay them back by then." She though it over in her head, and she done what any other woman would of done. She believed him. She trusted him.

"OK, but I swear Jack if you don't…" She threatened.

"Yeah, yeah I know you'll kill me. I get the picture." They both smiled falsely.

"I'm going to bed." She announced as she pushed her self up, Jack got up and helped her up; he gave a grin at their height difference she looked like a dwarf compared to him! He gave her a kiss and watched her waddle off to the bedroom.

"I can do it." He convinced him self as he raked his dark blonde hair. Deep down though, he knew this could only end badly.

**Soooo what do ya think? Oh yeah, my dads just pointed out something which I forgot. England is practically the only country which calls their apartments "Flats" so that's all that means Flats = Run down, smaller apartment. Sorry I'm a bit common with my wording, my faut haha. **

**Thanks for reading, follow and review and I'll carry on. Who knows how many chapters we'll end up with aye?**


	2. How are you, mate?

**Hey ya! Yup, I'm back with more! And as promised this chap is longer! Sorry but no Joker in this chap but there are subtle hints to him... I'm already working on chap 3 and don't worry, I'm not saying you're going to see the Joker in the next chap, but you'll see how he got his ****scars and what pushed him over the edge. So the chances are there will be some Joker action in chap 4! ****The next chap is going to start with the line "1 month on" so you won't get bored! ****Anyway lets get on with the story!**

After getting far too many warnings from his wife the next morning, even Jack was now starting to doubt his decision. He was going to borrow money off of one of the most notorious loan sharks in the city; he was famous for making people sorry if they didn't pay him back in time, sure Jack had known him for a while, but still?.

"What am I doing?" He mumbled to him self in the mirror as he shaved. "Ah!" He growled at the blade as he nicked himself in the corner of the mouth. "Great, just to top it off nicely."

He had been looking through newspaper after newspaper for a job, he rang so many and the answer was either "Not enough experience" or "Too much experience" All in all it had gone horrible. He knew it would though. He had already made up his mind about what he was going to do, but he was just double checking more than anything.

Sonya had gone out to her friends this morning to "Have a break" as she put it. "Have a break. Ha, yeah right, more like go and insult me till she's blue in the face." He mumbled to himself in the mirror, laughing at his own joke then promptly stopping realizing that he looked like a lunatic. His random outburst of laughter was probably due to the fact that he was so nervous; it was just a distraction method. He got dressed; denim jeans, white shirt with the two top buttons undone with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He raked back his surfer style, mid length hair back – a common thing for Jack to do when he was stressed, just like the night before. It was a relatively hot day so he didn't need to wear anything over it.

After completing his daily ritual of dodging the past-out people on the stair case, Jack made it outdoors into the blazing sun. His destination was only a few blocks away and so he decided to walk instead of taking the bus. He actually did enjoy just strolling. It was…"Sorry there." He was cut short of his thoughts as he said his apology to a man after walking straight into him. The man was about the same height as Jack with black slicked back black hair, he looked way to upper class for this area; He had a tailored three piece suite on, and the shoes and looks to match. Jack wondered why he was there in the first place. The man nodded and smiled

"It was my fault, sorry." The well dressed apologized then carried on walking in a hurry.

"Bruce!" Shouted a woman after the man, they looked like they were in the middle of an argument.

"Crazy, all of 'em." Jack mumbled to himself as he watched the squabbling couple. He shook his head and carried on his way.

He finally stopped outside of a nightclub – the title was misleading seems as it was just as open in the day as it was at night. He stepped in and was instantly hit with the smell of alcohol and sweat, teamed with the strobe lights keeping in time with the repetitive anthem and the crowd of dancing people, made Jack instantly feel dizzy and disoriented. He was shocked at how crowded it was. It was daytime! Regardless, he started pushing his way through the crowds. He finally caught sight of "The Bosses" private area. "Here goes…" Jack mumbled under his breath.

"Ouch. 'Scuse me!" Jack shouted over the loud thumping of the anthem, as someone stepped on his foot. The guy didn't budge; he simply turned round and gave Jack a filthy look. "Didn't you hear me? I said excuse me!" Jack's fuse was getting shorter. The guy turned around, he was shorter than Jack, by a lot. "Move. Now." Jack growled through gritted teeth. The short, dumpy man was intimidated. Not only by Jack's broadness and height, but the fact that he had now darker eyes than the guy thought was possible.

"Yeah, sorry mate." The guy apologized and shifted to the side to make room for a now riled Jack.

After finally making it through the dancing crowds of drunken people he made it to the area he had caught sight of earlier. He made it to the door where there were two bodyguards, one stepped in front of Jack - the broader one, taller than himself. Jack noted - stopping him in his tracks. "What business do you have here?" The bodyguard demanded in such an intimidating voice it sent shivers up Jack's spine.

"I'm here to speak to Mark Taylor." Jack replied in a much weaker voice than he had hoped to use.

"Have you arranged it beforehand?" "No, we're… old… friends." Jack faulted "He'll know my name; Jack Napier." He added quickly.

"Right wait here." The guard ordered, he then disappeared through the door into the room, after a moment or two he came back out; "Alright, he knows you alright." He nodded.

"Great, thanks." Jack took in a breath as the guard opened the door for him; Jack nodded to him and walked in.

Under the dark lighting Jack could just make out a silhouette sitting behind a large desk.

"Jackie boy! Good to see ya buddy boy! How long has it been again?" The distinctive English accent met Jacks ears. The so-called "Money lender" wasn't really the type of person that Jack would class as a "friend" but he was the type of guy that you would rather have as a friend rather than as an enemy.

"Good to see you Mark, and about oh, I dunno… five years?" Jack sounded actually quite confident on the outside, when inside he was a nervous wreck wanting to run as far as he could from this place.

Taylor let out a low laugh then replied "Yes, yes I think that's about right. Take a seat Jack!" Jack walked up to the seat placed in front on the desk and sat down. "So what can I do for you mate?" Jack suddenly felt shy; he was reminded of when he was a small child at school having to do a Christmas play but the stage fright got to him, making him trip over every other word.

"I'm having… bad… well… money problems." Jack faltered much more than he had hoped to.

"Ah, I see, how much do you need then?" The English-man asked.

About forty minutes later Jack was handed over $2,000. "Thanks Mark, you know I wouldn't ask unless I really needed to." Jack said.

"Yeah I know." Jack absently in an absent minded way, rubbed his hand across his mouth, instantly regretting it as he brushed past the cut in the corner of his mouth, he let out a low hiss as soon as he did.

"You alright there Jack?" Mark asked, curious as to what had just made Jack hiss.

"Yeah I'm fine, just cut my self shaving." He answered taking his hand away from his mouth before he hurt himself any further.

"You ought to be more careful in future Jack, you could end up with more than a little cut…" Mark said half jokingly and the other half being in a threatening manor.

"Uh, yeah, ha, your right." Jack didn't like the comment Taylor had just made, but choose to let it go one ear and out the other. "Thanks again." Jack made it out, alive, which was always a bonus. He did feel very wary of walking round such a run down area with $2,000 in his pocket, $1,000 in one pocket and another $1,000 in the other. He had one month to pay it back with a lot of interest as well. One month!

He could do it. Surely?

**Thank you to my reviewer and also to my first follower! It means soo much!xx And to the rest; thank you for reading!**


	3. The beginning of the end

**Hey guys! Yep chapter 3 is up! I'm really sorry if this if you think "Oi! That's like how he got the scars in my story!" But I'm not copying anyone at all, I haven't actually read a lot of story's of The Joker before he was The Joker ;) In all fairness there is only a couple of ways you can go with "The scar origins" I tried to stick to the comics hence the name "Jack Napier" but all of the original names in this all came from my own brain eheh :D So I can assure you I haven't copied any of you!**

**Anyway lets get on with the story next chap will have the starting of Mr.J (Joker) in YAY! The Joker is a very complex character so t wont just be that Jack wakes up one morning and says "Hey! I'm going to be the most feared man in Gotham!" Mr.J has a lot of layers to him (Well i think he does) ;D And yes that was THE Bruce Wayne in the last chapter ;) **

**Anyway here we go, hope you like x**

**_1 month later…_**

"JACK! What did I say? Hm? What I said was "We won't be able to pay back $2,000" THAT'S WHAT I SAID!" Sonya shouted as loud as her lungs would able to her. She was in tears, sobbing to the point of feeling ill. She was pacing so much that it had actually crossed Jack's mind that she might wear a hole in the floor boards.

"I know what I said. You don't honestly think that I planed it to go this way do you?" He quickly retorted. His one month was up and surprise, surprise; he didn't have the money. It did cross his mind to run but he knew that he was just clutching at straws; they would find him within a matter of weeks – if he were lucky. Just because he used to be good friends with the loan shark it didn't mean that Mark was just about to let him off. He really didn't know what he was thinking when he borrowed the money. What did he think he was going to do? Win the lottery?

"What are you going to do Jack? What are _we _going to do?" She croaked.

"I don't know we haven't got a lot of time." Jack said whispering the last word.

"Thanks Napier that's really filled me with confidence." It was never a good thing when she addressed him by his second name… It meant she was really, _very_, angry with him. "Go to Tom's house, look he obviously won't give you all of it but enough to keep them at bay." Tom was a good friend of Jack's, which was handy since Tom was also married to Kate; an equally good friend to Sonya.

"And how exactly will I ask him?" Jack questioned.

"I don't know! You think of something you always seem to know what to do!" She spat back aggressively. Jack didn't even answer; instead he pretended she never said it. He walked strode to the door opened it and made a swift exit. Trotting down the stairs mumbling things to him self in a non-existing language, he thought about how he was going to ask Tom. "Hi Tom, can you give me a couple of hundred dollars because I borrowed off of a loan shark, because I'm an idiot who obviously has no brain." Jack mumbled the sentence to him self rolling his eyes. He opened the main door and took off to Tom and Kate's house at a long striding pace; it was only thirty minutes away if he kept this brisk pace up.

40 minutes later he came out of Tom's house with $500 in his coat pocket. It was an awkward moment asking for the money but Tom being the good friend he was to Jack and Kate being the good friend she was to Sonya made it easier and they were very understandable, Tom pointed out that Jack should of came to them first instead of going to the loan shark but – "Jack! Jack!" He was cut short of his thought when one of his neighbors came running towards him; it was Joe. What was here doing here? Jack was at least twenty minutes away from home still.

"Calm down! What do you want?" Jack growled he wasn't in the mood for busy bodies who had nothing better to do with there time other than to irritate those around them.

"Oh bloody hell Jack!" Jack suddenly felt a wave of panic come over him. Now that Joe was closer Jack could see that he was dripping wet with sweat and was shaking like a leaf. "I don't know how to say this but… well… you know… Sonya… she…" He stuttered over him self.

"What Joe? Sonya what?" Jack asked loudly with a shaky voice, his hands no gripping onto Joe shoulders shaking him for an answer.

"They're already there Jack… They've already got hold of her." He whispered. Jack never felt anything like it in his life. His knees went to jelly, his body went cold and hot at the same time, his words died out in his throat. He ran. He pushed Joe out the way without a word and ran as fast as his long legs could cope with. He had to get there maybe there would still be a chance. Maybe Joe was exaggerating. Yeah he was, he always did. But it didn't stop Jack from running to his flat at full pelt. He didn't care what the people on the sidewalk thought of him, he really didn't. He reached the main door, by pure luck someone was just coming out and so the door was just open enough for him to catch it and run through the shouts and curses of people telling him to slow down. After what felt like forever he reached his front door. It was open, but not completely, by the looks of it kicked or somehow forced open. He didn't know what to expect. He pushed the door open more slowly. It was then followed by a type of cry mixed with screaming he didn't even know was possible to make. The weird animistic cry mixed with scream came from his mouth. The phrase "Blood bath" was too subtle to describe the scene. This was the type of things you only saw in films… There was the love of his life on the floor surrounded by her own pool of thick red blood. She was long gone. Which meant the new life inside her belly would be as well.

"No, no, no, NO, NO, NO!" Jack screamed as he collapsed to his knees, his jeans soaking up the blood. Because Jack had tunnel vision he didn't notice the fact that he wasn't the only one with a pulse in his flat.

"Well needless to say that this could have been avoided." A deep male voice suddenly cut through Jack's sobbing. Jack slowly lifted his head looking for the owner of the voice, peering through his thick blonde hair which was now dangling over his chocolate eyes, resembling a scene from _The Ring_; Jack could make out a man staring at him sitting down on the windowsill, a brown haired man who couldn't of been any older than 30; but he had ridiculous muscles, Jack knew what was coming, frankly he didn't care. Jack then heard footsteps which confused him; the man wasn't moving just sitting. Where were the footsteps coming from then? His question was soon answered as he saw another man with an equally muscular build coming out of the kitchen. Jack just stared up at the two; there were no words to describe this situation. The other one joined the man sitting on the windowsill by standing next to him with a sadistic smirk set on his face.

"Let's get straight to the point, Napier. Boss wanted us to finish what you started with the razor." Jack didn't respond, but instead just looked straight through him, concentrating on a dead moth, for a reason unknown to himself. The which came in from the kitchen walked over to Jack stood by him one hand grabbing Jack by his dark blonde hair and the other hand pressed against Jack's forehead making sure he wouldn't lull his head out of the way of whatever was about to come. The man from the windowsill came at Jack whilst reaching in his pocket and producing a knife, he stepped over Sonya's corpse and bent down to Jack's level."Bloody hell you look like a clown with that red nose of yours, guess it doesn't help with this mop of hair does it?" The man laughed, he then muttered, sarcastically "Sorry pretty boy, but you know… duty calls."The man then shoved the knife in the blonde's mouth; it was at this point Jack's world went black, he had passed out.

These men didn't realize there mistake. They left him alive. Scared, mentally and physically, but alive. They didn't realize that they would create the most feared man in Gotham.

The Joker.

**Thanks for reading guys! Reviews please, don't be harsh I'm still learning ;)**


	4. Author's note - Not a chapter!

Sorry guys that it's not a chapter, but I felt that I should put something! ;)

This is just to let you all know that the reason I haven't updated is because I got thrown from my horse and ended up forgetting everything that happened in the past 4 weeks (As well as forgetting Heath died... I started crying when I realized he was dead...) also I broke my fingers... So that's why! But I have revised the story (A name change, correcting spelling, etc) But there still might be a few mistakes and Jack's wife's original name might still be in there so sorry if it is, but there wont be as many mistakes! There's two reasons why I changed her name - 1: Because I like Sonya better. 2: I realized a few other story's were using the name "Jenny" as well so yup that's why!

Thank you to people who have reviewed!

**Disneygirl143** - Thank you very much for reviewing and following my story it really means a lot!

And to the other 2 guest reviews thank you very much!

I'm planning to update soon!


	5. Back to reality

**Woo, finally found time to update! So here's chapter 4 sorry if its a bit too light-hearted but its from someone else's point of view, I don't think i'll be doing this "Someone else's p.o.v" thing again, as it is a Joker story, but i couldn't think of another way to do it, it didn't read right from Jack's p.o.v. Hope you enjoy!**

"We've stitched up the knife wounds as best as we can, however I'm afraid that if he panics and tries to scream there's a chance he could re-open them again." I explain to my boss, she's bending my ear about this mans scars, about how we should of done a better job of it.

"I'm sorry but I still don't think you've done it up to the standards that you should of. If I'm completely honest I'd expect a lot better off of you." She snorted aloofly as someone passed us down the corridor, I'm not sure if it's physically possible for this to get anymore degrading, I'm certain she just made her voice louder as the receptionist passed us, I held my tongue until the younger woman passed.

"Look I'm sorry if they are not up to your standards but…" She cut me off, I've suddenly had the urge to loose all professionalism and start screaming at her.

"Don't get sarcastic with me." I wasn't, I'm just pissed off now. "You show that work to anyone and they will say the same as me. I'm sorry but it isn't good enough Monica, it really isn't." It's not supposed to be the work of an artist; she really is starting to test my patience now.

"As I was saying, it was done as an emergency, as was not meant to be a permanent solution, but more to the point to stop the bleeding, which I might add, could have been fatal for him. I didn't feel it was appropriate to waste time on the cosmetics, I thought that his well-being would be a priority or more accurately _the _priority." Ok so now I'm practically bursting with pride; I just managed to flatten my boss verbally, it would be more satisfying if I could have done it physically.

"Right I'm going home now, by the time I come back tomorrow I want his scars to look better ok?" It was a rhetorical question. "Now go and check on him seems as that used to be your job and you were the one who stitched him up." Wow, how bitchy? But I do like the way she acted like I had never spoke. She's referring to the fact that I used to be a healthcare assistant before a surgeon – I know a weird jump about jobs but there are reasons behind it. With that she strode off down the corridor with the familiar clip-clop of her heels.

I carried out my orders and went into the patient's room. At 28 years of age this man is very young to have scars at this level inflicted upon him. There the worst injuries I've seen in my 10 year career of that type. And by "That type" I mean mouth injuries; these really are horrific. They're on both sides of his face. They run up from the corner of his mouth all the way up to the top of his cheekbone area. There will always be scars there now, he's such a good looking guy as well; golden brown surfer hair style and a really nice kind look about him and just overall good-looking. Oh for goodness sake, I really am loosing all professionalism here. Someone save me from myself! His name was Jack Napier, the reason we know that was because of his neighbor, who also told us that the woman who was found with Mr. Napier was in fact his wife; Emma Napier, who would have had to been identified by her dental records of it wasn't for the neighbor, the saddest part of all of it was the fact that the woman was pregnant.

I was in a complete world of my own thinking about that and who was going to brake it to Mr. Napier that his life had completely shattered in a matter of hours - that and also about how bitchy my boss was being when literally out of nowhere he woke up; choking and spluttering, sounding like he had nearly drowned and had just reached the surface in time. His eyes shot open revealing deep brown eyes, you couldn't actually tell between his pupils and iris. Oh no, he was coughing that meant- "No sir don't do that, you'll rip open your stitches." He wasn't listening he was choking still; I could handle this I didn't need anyone's help.

"Please listen to me, your doing yourself harm." And you know what? He actually listened and seemed to calm down. "Good, now you can talk but just don't over do it." His dark eyes bored into my own blue ones. His eyes actually looked a bit unnerving now. He didn't look like he had any intention of talking so I started off. "Can you tell me your name?" He nodded and finally his voice box finally crackled into life.

"Jack… Jack Napier." That's a start, but his voice is really very weak and hardly audible.

"Good, now what's your date of birth Mr. Napier?" He completely shunted this question and instead reality kicked in.

"What happened? Where is she?" He stuttered out. Bless, he must be talking about his wife. Oh, I promised my self I wouldn't be the one to tell him, that wasn't in my job description, in fact none of this was, not anymore anyway.

"Sir, please just try and calm down and listen, I'm not sure what happened, I'm the surgeon, not the police so please just try and relax and understand that that is not my job, I'm sorry." Now I really do want to tell him, but I don't want to be here while he has a panic attack or worst still lash out at those nearest to him and also I could probably get sued if I don't have it completely 100% right. I'm not being responsible for any of that, someone else can get the blame, and I've been blamed for enough things today already. "You'll have to wait until someone else gets here who can explain everything to you." I know it sounds harsh, but I really couldn't risk it.

"No, I need to know, what happened to Sonya, when I walked in… She… She…" Oh bless him, Ok I'm not that bad, and I can't stand this.

"I will tell you what I know, but please listen, I don't know the ins and outs but I will tell you what I know." I had got his full attention now. "Your wife; Sonya… Well I'm sorry, but there really isn't any easy way to say this…" I couldn't say the actual words; I let him do that for himself. He didn't respond, he looked away and took a deep breath in… He's not exhaling, oh great that's all I need. He finally took a breath out after what felt like forever.

"Who was it?" He ordered in voice which sent shivers down my spine. "Sir like I said I don't know the finer details, I really am sorry." He stayed looking the other way and so I took that as my queue to leave.

An hour later I returned. I swear I could have actually dropped dead out of shock there and then. If I wasn't in the medical industry I could of sworn I was about to have a heart attack. He was gone. He had unhooked himself and actually gone. And guess what else would be gone? My job! I quickly ran to the side of his bed to look for the bag in which we put his clothes in. It was still there. No, hang on a minute the man in the bed next to his one had no bag or what I should say he didn't have a bag _anymore_. Oh no, his name is Jack Nathan. He must of picked up a bag in a hurry and saw the Jack Na- On it and maybe the rest of it had… well I don't know maybe he just picked it up in a rush. I feel another pang of sympathy for him, Jack Nathan was on a stag-doo and he was dressed up in a purple suit. So Jack Napier is somewhere out there in a purple suit, could life get any worse for him? More to the point what is he doing out there?


End file.
